Soulfly - Dark Ages

Sepulfly

Awesome! Aside from Cavalera Conspiracy, this and Conquer are Max's best work since his Sepultura days! Any fan of the original Sepultura, Soulfly, or all things Max should thoroughly enjoy this release. Very heavy, no weak sh** here! This album, Conquer, and 3 are my favorite Soulfly albums, but even Soulfly at their worst is better than any Sepultura album with Derrick Green! Sepultura should have changed their name to Green Hell when Max left and Derrick stepped in, but that's another story. August 13, 2008

Darker days ahead ?

From the moment Max Cavalera was out from the band he fronted for more than 10 years (Sepultura, of course...), he was facing the dilemma that pursues anyone who steps aside from an established act. He could stick to the proven formula (after all he was the principal songwriter of the band) and continue working in his familiar style. Otherwise, he could build his new band from scratch. He chose another part - taking the modus operandi of the last Sepultura albums Chaos A.D. and Roots - he broadened and expanded it, further establishing the tribe-metal style. However the first lineup of this outfit lacked the crucial ingredients for further buildup. The major drawback was absence of a stable lead guitarist. The only constant bandmember these years was the bass player Marcello Diaz (former Sepultura roadie).
Prior to the recording of the Prophecy album Max came with the inevitable change. Entered ex-Ill Nino flamenco-shredder Marc Rizzo. For me he is complimenting Max the Riffmeister much better than Sepultura axeman Andreas Kisser. Their teamwork proved itself well in the band's two last outputs.
Dark Ages is the most recent Soulfly record, released in 2005. The overall vibe is very much Sepultura-like, pushing forward thrashing riffs instead of decorating with them fusion experiments that were prominent on previous releases. Outstanding songs for me would be I and I that fuses Max's trademark diesel riffs with a nice mellow passage, solid thrashers Babylon, Carved Inside, and Arise Again (a nod to the Sepultura glory days?). Several misses I found here are: the stupid singing in Russian on Molotov song (F^&*k the war, maneuvers are the main thing -?!!!!) that is pretty lame anyway, the familiar tribal drumming and chanting about Zumbi the hero - we've been in this movie already. Finally, the too long instrumental Soulfly V. In general, this is the finest Soulfly album (apart from its predecessor maybe - the excellent Prophecy). Hopefully this lineup of the band will produce more great music!!!
May 1, 2007

The Bab E Lon!

This CD is easily the most accessible effort since the 2nd of the Soulfly discography, and what I found most interesting is how he incorporates some old-school metal devices in these songs to create something fresh... or am I the only one who noticed how Maiden-like some of the guitar choruses sounded, or the double-bass backbeats of late 80s rockers Testament?

Nah, no way. Fans of old-school and 90s metal need to have this album right now. If you thought Max lost his way in prior works, shake it off and check this out. It's surprisingly heavy, heavier than Slayer's Christ Illusion or Meshuggah's first album. Those who know, will recognize how truly metal that really is.

-Fred

November 22, 2006

Very Current, and Very Acurate With the Mood of the Real Minds of Today

I was, and still am addicted to the first Soulfly release. Primitive came out, and pissed me off. I grabbed a few tracks off of 3 that drove me nuts, and totally abandoned Prophecy. Only after searching for hard heavy metal music I decided to give an old band a visit thanks to related links, and I guess growing up a metal head it was before my time?

Well here I am now a total of 7 years later and I got all 5 albums in the front of my 'bible' of an album book. Got em all at once, and you can read my reviews on each one with Prophecy rating all four.

This album is dark. The vibe this album carries is jaw dropping. Having known Max for being hurt over his son's death, and then patriotic with 9/11, then just jamming hard and worshipping god and faith, this album is like a damn therapy album for him. It has to be...

From the very beginning this disc starts off with the Arabian instrumentation that I know nothing of, but love and then it roars with a memorable drum roll kicking off the second track. From then on it gets harder and harder. I'm pretty sure the line up on this album was the same guys from disc one? If not then shoot me, but it's got at least a couple...

Most of the reviews say it goes back to Sepultura's roots, which personally I was never a big fan of cuz I can only take so much thrashing, and repetitiveness. The instrumentation and prodduction provided a good change with classic to modern - with solos being thrown in and sounding accurate. Max's vocals seem to have lol finally developed and sounded at their best. He's got this grind in his throat that doesn't sound overdone, and he's deeper in tone, but not throat clearing you know?

The lyrics and the PULSE of each song is what totally won me over. It's dark, simply put. It's like being in the head of a soldier, or philosophical thought of an anti war person who knows from being there what the feeling is. Hatred, violence, death, murder, suicide, regret, and prayer. It seems as if after all his patriotism towards the war and god being on his side, he feels robbed. He's angry. He's confused, and he's very pissed off.

This is definately an album to look into more than just good hard rocking music because his lyrics actually have heart in them, more than before and he's crying out/admitting mistakes. The war politcally and medialy has turned sour, and he knows it. We're getting more bodies shipped with freight than 9/11 victims' identifable body parts. It's by no means a political record, but to me it seems that he too is just fed up with everything in life, the government and right now Dana's justice being served is kinda secondary, also considering the feds have never closed the case..

I could explain this album so much why it's definately my top 3 right now, but the editors won't take it. vIf you've read my reviews and they've helped you buy, this will sell too. This album is a change of style, this album actually sounds like a BAND rather than random tracks thrown onto a disc. This album has a flow, even a marching song before a battle!! It's got the same breaks of tribal elements down tuned beaten with upside down drumsticks and not just palmed bongos.. The disc is black, the art is black and white, skulls and bones, the whole gothic symbol of oh s--- this isn't good. Buy it, and it'll be hardest if not the best Soulfly album yet. I promise mo fo's... October 14, 2006

This Age is not too Dark

Dark Ages is Soulfly's Fifth album. Most people have labeled it as Max's heaviest album since Arise. This is sadly not true. Though the cover art comes from the same artist who drew the cover art for Beneath the Remains, Arise and Chaos A.D., Dark Ages is not all it's been hyped up to be. It has its heavy moments in the beginning, but as you progress through it, the flaws become apparent and Dark Ages becomes difficult to listen to from start to finish. There are a lot of things wrong with this album, which I shall list now.

1. Special Guests: yet again, Max Brings in 3 vocalists who are below average. The worst is his stepson Ritchie Cavalera, who makes me want to rip my ears off in a horrible and twisted rage from his inability to sing.
2. The Zumbi chant and Berimbau: Max needs to get a new chant. One every single Soulfly album he uses the same thing over and over again. This time he uses them on the song Riotstarter, which has got to be one of the worst songs on the album. You would think that his interest in tribes would allow him to use another one.
3. References to previous songs: Arise Again... Let's just say that the song Arise is better than this whole album. Same goes for Innerspirit (Inner Self).
4. Soulfly (Insert Roman Numeral Here) Instrumental: while this instrumental isn't that bad, it's rather boring.
5. Poor lyrics: The lyrics become pretty bad and annoying at a few points.
6. Lyrics about Dana's Death: I understand that Max was really attached to his Stepson, but it's been 10 years since his death. Do you think that if Dana were alive that he would want Max and his family to be grieving over his death until the end of time? I wouldn't.
7. Christian lyrics: These are the things that bother me the most. I'm an Atheist and I respect the beliefs of most people, but Pro God lyrics just don't work in Metal. I'm surprised that touring with MORBID ANGEL didn't change this. Remember songs like Necromancer? Antichrist? Crucifixion? Doe anyone remember?
8. Max actually mispronounces Babylon which kills the song for me and just makes me laugh at times.
9. (The) March: It's like Prodigy got involved with Soulfly, fortunately it only lasts 1:18.

With that all said and done, now we can talk about the good things found on this album. There are actually a lot of good songs found on the album. Had it been cut down to ten songs, this album would be significantly better. This is the first Soulfly album to not have a lineup change and actually allow the band to strengthen together and create some really good songs. But who knows how long it will last before Max kicks someone out. If you want to find out what Max is up to then I would definitely recommend picking this up, but only in the used bin. If you are a huge Soulfly fan then you'll go nuts over this but the moment you listen to the early Sepultura album, you may lose interest in this one.

Now that was the review for Dark Ages. This section is my comment on Soulfly and where they are with Sepultura. Though not really a review, I felt that I needed to say this and compare Dark Ages to Sepultura's Dante XXI as I am sure some readers are interested to know who is outdoing the other.

What's the current situation with Sepultura and Soulfly? Which outdoes the original? Many people would probably yell at me by saying "Those are two DIFFERENT bands!" but admit it. Everyone wants to know which is currently doing better. Which of their new albums are better? Is it Dark Ages or Dante XXI? So here is my opinion. Dark ages has a few good songs which bring back some hope that Max still has it in him. However, the album is plagued by special guests (fewer this time), clichés, Christianity to the point of annoyance, and features a few songs that should never have been recorded. Dante XXI on the other hand, I can listen to from start to end, features better solos and though it has a few soft spots, is a solid record and filled with mystery as it is a very interesting concept album. In the long run, Dante XXI is a much better album than Dark Ages by comparison. However the question of which is a better band may go to Soulfly as Igor Cavalera has officially decided to leave Sepultura, leaving Paulo as the only remaining original member. Now two of the things I loved about Sepultura are gone; Max's awesome Vocals and Igor's unique drumming with only thing saving the band being Andreas. Derrick may make a good vocalist but Max was just better in comparison hands down. The future of Sepultura is at stake where as Soulfly is actually becoming stable with Dark Ages being the first album without a lineup change. Who knows what will happen in the future as it looks like it's up in the air. Hoped this review and comparison helped, I apologize for its length.
July 13, 2006

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